


Come With Me (Don’t Go)

by deathbitch



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Diego/Klaus, Feels, Fluff, Gen, Give Klaus a Hug, If You Squint - Freeform, One Shot, Underage Drinking, all i write these days is angst, for like half a paragraph, no beta we die like ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 08:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24348364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathbitch/pseuds/deathbitch
Summary: “Run away with me. I mean it, let’s leave. We can leave tomorrow.”Klaus is thirteen when he gets drunk for the first time and asks Diego to run away with him.Klaus is eighteen when Ben dies and he asks again.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Kudos: 42





	Come With Me (Don’t Go)

**Author's Note:**

> This is twice within like...two weeks that I’ve posted. Woah, man. I’m actually working on a pretty lengthy multi-chapter at the moment but what a better way than to take a break from writing with ... more writing!  
> This is my (slightly cheesy) take on Klaus leaving the Academy. I am well aware that they probably left well before 18 but this is my sort of own take on the timeline.  
> Enjoy, I’ll see you at the end. Oh yeah and beware of spelling mistakes. I wrote this between the hours of 1am-5am....yeah......

Klaus was thirteen when he got drunk for the first time. 

Their father had left the country on some business or another, leaving the teenagers in the care of Grace and Pogo, although Luther would swear blind that _he_ was the one in charge. Which, yeah that was true, but Diego would never give him the satisfaction of actually obeying his orders. 

Apparently, neither would Klaus. He stumbled into Diego’s room a little after midnight with this dummy smile on his face, waking Diego from sleep that he had only just managed to slip into the previous hour. 

Klaus crawled onto Diego’s bed, leaning over him until his face hovered over Diego’s and for a few seconds he watched his sleeping face. Klaus thought he was probably the prettiest boy he had ever seen, especially like this, with his neutral expression and his slightly parted lips. Gone was the hardened look he wore during training and in push and shoves with Luther, here instead was someone that could actually look approachable. 

Klaus giggled, a shallow drunken noise as he raised his hand up and pressed his finger into Diego’s cheek a couple times to try and wake him. He leaned down to Diego’s ear and whispered his name through a smile. Klaus pulled back and poked him a few more times until Diego was gently stirring with a soft noise. 

Diego eyes widened at the sight of someone he didn’t immediately recognize in the dark room hovering over him and he shrieked, pushing his hands out and shoving Klaus straight to the floor. Klaus landed with a hard _thump_ on hip and back, throwing his hands back in a failed attempt to catch his fall, “Owwww!”

The bedside lamp flickered on and in blinding speed Diego was the one hovering over him, brandishing a knife just in front of Klaus’s face. Klaus gasped, “ _Holy fucking shit_! Diego, it’s me!” 

“ _KLAUS!_ You-you, oh my god!” Diego’s voice was a steady mix of concerned, surprised, angry, and relieved as he looked behind quickly to throw the knife onto the bed before he looked back down at Klaus, getting on his knees so they were face level, “What are you doing here?”

“Can’t I come see my own brother?” Klaus asked, trying to sound casual and maybe a little sarcastic but a laugh bubbled out of him at the end of the sentence and Diego made a face at him .

“Are you drunk?!” Diego asked rhetorically, leaning in to sniff at him and looked borderline disgusted at the unmistakable smell of hard liquor that lingered around the edges of Klaus’s skin, “What the hell are you thinking!”

“What the hell do you care?” Klaus made to sit up with a wince, screwing his face up against the sharp pain that shot straight to his right hip. 

Diego looked at him incredulously, falling back from where he was slightly hovering to sit properly on his butt, “Are you kidding me, Klaus?”

“Sorry, sorry. Sorry, I - I don’t know why I said that. Or even why I came here,” Klaus’s voice became small and his eyes were unfocused, briefly searching the space between them before he rubbed at his eyes with the backs of his hands. When he tried crossing his legs there was that same sharp shooting pain, “Jeez! You hurt the shit out of me.”

“Imagine my surprise when I get waken up in the night to some person hovering over me like a weirdo, it wasn’t exactly an abnormal response,” Diego reasoned with a shrug. There was a washing of guilt over him, “Sorry for pushing you though, and, uh, putting a knife in your face. We’re just lucky dad isn’t here because you fell pretty damn loud.”

Klaus huffed a laugh but it there was no humor, just some dry noise that came as quickly as it left, “Fuck that bastard.”

“Klaus!” Diego scalded but there was no real harshness in his voice. He watched Klaus for a few moments, he was gently swaying in his intoxicated state, his eyes almost closing. Diego registered a feeling that was blooming in his chest as pity that bordered sadness. 

“Is everything okay?” There was a slightly panicked voice from the threshold and Diego looked to see Luther standing there, looking down between them. 

“Yeah, everything is fine,” Diego replied a bit too quickly, hoping Klaus would just sit there and not give away any indication that he was drunk on alcohol he found God knows where. The last thing he needed was Luther tattling to Dad about Klaus. Diego had to force himself not to think about what kind of punishment Klaus would be on the receiving end of. 

“Any reason you two are just ... sitting there?” Luther asked, and a second later Allison appeared next to him in the doorframe. Diego rolled his eyes heavenward for no real reason. These days their very existence caused him to just roll his eyes. Call it a reflex. 

“We were just talking,” Diego replied, sounded defensive and like he did not want this conversation at all. Klaus let out that stupid snort of drunken laughter at his response, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees but wincing again at the pain and he cursed slightly. 

“What’s with him?” Allison asked, pointing to Klaus despite the fact there was no one else she could have possibly been referring to. 

“What’s with you?” Klaus had to have thought that was a clever quip. He turned on his butt to face the door and Diego’s shoulders sagged in annoyance. There was no way this situation was ending well, ever. “What ... is ... with ... _you?_ ” He jabbed an accusatory finger at the both of them who were staring down at him with equally matched confused glares. At least Allison seemed slightly amused. 

“Oh, my God, he’s totally wasted!” Allison burst out into giggles, covering her mouth in some kind of feminine gesture that she had probably seen in one of the movies she’d spent all her free time watching these days. 

Luther did not share the same sentiment. His eyebrows pulled together in disgust and he shook his head, “You are a mess, Klaus. What if Dad was here?”

“Shouldn’t you two be like ... smushing butts or something?” Klaus retorted, leaning back to rest on his hands and stretching his legs out in front of him, “I heard a rumor that you two fucking ... went away or something.”

Diego would have laughed in different circumstances. He could hear the ghost of his own laughter, something that would have been lovingly expressed at Klaus’s stupid comments at the situation that was clearly them versus Luther and Allison. Diego watched from where he sat as Klaus stood up. 

“Me and dear Number Two here were having a heart to heart about what a fantastic bastard of a father we have, so I think, here’s what I think - I think you two should get lost!” Klaus started walked slowly towards the two of them and Diego felt the faintest tickle of wind on the shell of his ear that trickled in from the cracked window.

“You are fucked up, Klaus. Don’t talk about Dad like that,” Luther replied, not even budging despite Klaus’s almost polite request of them to leave. They weren’t exactly being quiet. Diego wondered if the rest of the house would be rocking up for a bedroom party any time soon. They had to be awake. 

“Or what?” Klaus tried to sound threatening but there was a sloppy smile on his face that had been there since Luther and Allison joined them in the room. Diego looked between them as they respectively spoke with a grim sort of expression. 

“I’m warning you, Klaus. I will tell Dad about you stealing his alcohol and he will -“ Luther was interrupted by Klaus doubling over and vomiting all over Allison’s shoes. It was safe to say Allison was not pleased at this happening, squealing and stepping away. Diego wondered if the sudden vomiting was due to the intoxication or at the thought of being punished. 

When Diego walked Klaus back to his own bedroom, he flopped onto his bed and suddenly burst into tears and turned to face the wall where he lay. Diego had wanted to talk about it but Klaus had become small and cutoff, not saying a single word after he threw up all over the floor. Not even when Ben had joined them about a minute after that happened to see what had happened. Luther and Allison were not so keen to stick around. 

Ben had very kindly offered to clean the vomit whilst Diego headed to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. When Diego returned back upstairs Ben instructed him to collect a couple pain killers from his room. Sure as hell Klaus would need them in the morning. Diego returned to Klaus’s room with a tired sigh, he placed the water and the pain killers on the bedside table before he perched on the edge of the bed. Diego restrained from reaching out to place a hand on Klaus’s shoulder to get his attention and instead elected to simply saying his name. 

Klaus turned to face Diego, avoiding eye contact as another tear slipped from his eyes and ran over his nose. He sniffled and released a breath; there was a whole new energy about him. Heartbreak seemed to radiate from him in a static grey shake, like a discreet electrical current that would shock Diego if he touched him. “I hate it here,” Klaus sounded as broken as he looked. 

Diego watched another tear run in the same path as the previous, making contact with the pillow and bleeding into a bigger circle. There was a pang of sadness in Diego at the sight of his lively, seemingly carefree brother laying here so small, arms wrapped around himself and looking impossibly young, “Yeah...,” Diego agreed, his voice so gentle he wondered if he even said it out loud. 

“Can you,” Klaus started but was interrupted by a sniffle, “Can you join me?”

Diego manoeuvred to lay on his side and faced Klaus who looked at him after a few seconds. They were almost at opposite sides of the bed and despite it being only a single bed, it seemed like there was a whole planet between them. They stayed like that for a while and Diego began to feel the beginnings of sleep tugging at him. 

“Run away with me,” Klaus said suddenly. When Diego sniffled he smelt the alcohol on him again. “I mean it, let’s leave. We can leave tomorrow.”

Diego moved his hand up to rest between his own cheek and the pillow. He thought about it for a second and immediately found hundreds of problems in Klaus’s proposal - they can’t just run away. The two of them were barely teenagers, they had no money, they had nowhere to go, they knew no one except their siblings, dad, Pogo, and Grace. “Leave where?” He asked anyway.

“Where do you want to go?” Klaus asked, his voice so gentle and sad that Diego couldn’t bring himself to shoot down his dreams and besides, this was probably just some drunken fantasy and if it comforted Klaus then Diego was sure as hell not going to make him feel any worse. 

Where _did_ Diego want to go? He had never even left the city, never mind the state. He thought about all the times he had half-heartedly listened to Allison ramble on about the movies she’d seen, talking to no one in particular as they would engage in group study or have free time. Finally Diego replied, “California.”

“Then it’s settled,” Klaus almost smiled, “We will go to California. We will take Ben.” Klaus turned back around to face the wall and Diego heard him deeply inhale, an audible noise followed by a wet sniffle. Diego watched him for a few minutes and after a while wondered if Klaus was asleep. He reached out to place a comforting hand on Klaus’s shoulder but just as he was about to make contact, Klaus rolled forward to lay on his stomach and just like that he was out of reach.

Diego sat up and got up from the bed, moving to the chair at the foot of the bed where he pulled the blanket that was thrown over the back of it. He placed it over Klaus whose eyes were open and looking at nothing in particular, just blinking away occasional tears. Klaus had unknowingly moved out of Diego’s touch in ways he would manage to do their whole life: he was always close, he was just out of reach. 

_______________________________________________________

Ben died when they were eighteen. The month that followed was nothing more than a blur, an indescribable colorless swirling that rendered their brains hollow and stuffed with cotton. When Diego would lay down and close his eyes, there was a faint spinning sensation like he couldn’t find any ground to place his feet upon. 

Klaus entered the room one of those times where Diego was just laying in his bed, taking a moment to search the details in the ceiling. He rolled his head to look at Klaus stood at the door with a small smile. “I’m about to go crazy. Want to take a walk?” He asked, holding the door frame and leaning against it. 

Diego got up from the bed, “Sure,” He said as he pulled on his shoes. The two of them wordlessly left the mansion and walked in the daylight until they reached a local park, they entered the large, decorative archway that opened out to the rolling fields split by a stone path lined with tall trees. It was nice out, only slightly too hot in the peak of the day. 

“So here’s the thing,” Klaus said, the first words they had spoken after a comfortable ten minute silence, “I’ve been thinking a lot recently.”

“Oh yeah? About what?” Diego asked, looking at him as they walked down the path. He heard the sounds of their footsteps between the harsh chirping of a bird overhead somewhere. 

“Okay I’m just going to say it. I’m leaving,” Klaus said and Diego stopped walking, holding a hand out to Klaus’s arm to stop him and turn him to face him. 

Leaving? “What do you mean? You - you can’t just go,” Diego replied, confusion coloring his voice as he searched Klaus’s face. He looked tired - he looked more tired than Diego had ever remembered him looking. His eyes were dull, the once bright green that sparkled when Klaus told a joke was now just a bleak color that had lost their shine the morning Ben was found in his bedroom, still and painfully lifeless. 

“I’m leaving, Diego. I’m not coming back. I can’t take another fucking second in that mansion, I swear to christ I will go crazy if I do,” Klaus shoved his hands in his pockets as a much welcomed breeze tousled the edges of his curls. He sighed, “Tonight. I’m leaving tonight.”

“Tonight?” Diego echoed, hardly believing what he was hearing, “Where are you going to go? You know nobody. You have no money. Klaus, for God’s sake, please -“

“I know some guys who are going to let me crash with them. Temporarily, sure, but I will figure out the rest when I leave and I can clear my head,” Klaus replied and wiped at his nose with the back of his hand, “Well, metaphorically.”

“This is ... this is crazy, Klaus. You think you’re just going to leave and get away with it? You think Dad won’t find out?” Diego’s tone was almost accusatory - it wasn’t quite anger growing in him, more a confused frustration. 

“Dad doesn’t care!” Klaus snapped. His tone was definitely angry, his voice a low hiss as to not attract the attention of the families sitting on picnic blankets and laughing over sandwiches and blowing bubbles as their kids ran around with kites. Domestic bliss. “Ben barely had a funeral! That portrait of Five isn’t some - some fucking memorial! It was placed there as a reminder of what will happen to us if we disobey that old bastard! Fucking christ, Diego, don’t you _see_ how fucked up this is?!”

“Well I’m sorry that I don’t want to lose you too!” Diego shouted back at him before he could control his voice and he exhaled, closing his eyes momentarily the quell all the emotions that were bubbling up inside of him.

“You don’t have to lose me. You can come with me,” Klaus pleaded, reaching out to put his hands on Diego’s upper arms, just below his shoulders, “I remember what I said all those years ago about running away. We can go ... We can go anywhere. We aren’t bound here.”

Diego shook his head, drifting his eyes downwards for a second, “I can’t, Klaus. I can’t just pack up and leave. I won’t entertain th-this fantasy of yours.”

The grip of Diego’s arms faltered slightly before Klaus readjusted his grip, bringing Diego’s eyes up to meet his eyes. “Come with me,” He tried again and Diego wished he wouldn’t. 

“Don’t go,” Diego pleaded and the look that Klaus gave him made him want to crumble into hundreds of tiny little broken pieces. 

Klaus dropped his hands, returning them to his sides as a sorrowful look came over him, “I’m sorry, Diego. I’m leaving with or without you,” He said and then turned to walk up the path back the way they had came. Diego stared after him and swallowed down the lump in his throat, vaguely aware of the screeching laughter of children and the floral smell that breezed around him.

There was a small part of Diego that hoped Klaus wasn’t actually leaving. That he was just testing his reaction, or playing some real cruel prank on him but no, when he entered Klaus’s bedroom that night, like he had done hundreds of times before that, he was just slinging a single duffle bag over his shoulder. 

“So this is it,” Diego said from the threshold, causing Klaus to turn and bring his attention to him. 

“Can’t say I will miss it,” Klaus looked around the room where he stood. Diego saw them as kids, laughing and joking in the comfort of these four walls. Somewhere along the way it had stopped being a comfort and started becoming a prison. “My ride should be here any minute.”

Diego rocked back on his heels, “Can I at least walk you to the door?”

Klaus smiled at him, a genuine smile that made Diego look at him in fondness despite the situation. It was nice to see his beloved brother smiling. He felt warmth. In the midst of a lost and longing ache, there was room for trickles of warmth to bleed into the cold emotions; a golden glow like cracks in a black stone. The two walked to the foyer of the mansion and out the grandiose double doors and into the night. They stood just outside the doors as they waited. 

It felt as though Diego had a thousand things he wanted to say, that he _should_ say, and he wasn’t sure if it was the impending thought of Klaus leaving that set his stomach in knots but there was onset of nausea that began to play at him. He couldn’t believe this was happening - eighteen years had lead to this. It was surreal. A car pulled up to the side of the road and beeped a couple times. 

“Thank you,” Diego said suddenly, catching Klaus’s attention, “Thank you for everything. You’re sorta all I got. I’m gonna miss you, man.” There was a race in his heart - and not a good one, it was a bleak ache that caused the previous golden warmth he had felt at Klaus’s smile to bleed out of him in reverse. 

“Aw, Diego, I’m going to miss you too,” Klaus replied and pulled him into a hug. Diego returned the hug and made damn sure to savor this for as long as possible, he memorised the feelings of Klaus’s arms wrapped around him and the feeling of his hair on his temple and the way he smelled of fruity perfume and distant cigarettes. Diego wondered if they were ever going to see each other again. 

They pulled apart and Klaus shot him a final smile before he leaned down to pick his bag up, starting down the few stairs and exiting the gate. It gave a weathered groan as he left through it and Diego watched him all the way to the car until he opened the door and threw his bag inside. 

“Klaus!” Diego called out just as Klaus was about to get in, “Wait!” Wait for what? Diego felt glued in place as Klaus paused, his hands on the car door, turning so he faced Diego. Klaus gave him a wave goodbye and the miserable race in Diego’s heart increased as he waved back with trembling fingertips. 

Diego watched as Klaus suddenly stuck up the middle finger at the mansion with a playful smirk at his lips but meaning every implication of the gesture. Diego gave a broken laugh as Klaus got into the car and closed the door. The car pulled away and began down the street, leaving Diego behind who watched with eyes that became blurred to the world as tears began to run down his cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> The other two works I have uploaded were a sort of, maybe if you squint, duology that sort of take place in my own version of events regarding the teenage years of the academy kids - more importantly the holy trinity of Klaus, Ben, and Diego.  
> This is no different so call it kind-of-linked-but-not-really-trilogy. Maybe I will add them to a collection or something. I aimed to explore the relationship between the holy trinity and so far - wow has it been angsty.  
> I remember replying to a comment on my first fic that I will probably write something happier. Next time I will. ~~No I won’t.~~  
>  Hope ya’ll enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be around soon with even more of my unbeta’d feelings.  
> Until then, byeeeeeee.


End file.
